


perception

by corset



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 22:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5557862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corset/pseuds/corset
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alya is an observant young woman and her best friend has been lying to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	perception

**Author's Note:**

> i just wanted to try out a minamlistic fic style & write an alyanette reveal
> 
> content warning for casual ableist language

Alya is an intelligent woman, but she wishes she weren’t.  
Maybe then she wouldn’t have discovered the truth.  
Maybe then she wouldn’t have discovered her best friend is lying to her.

There are so many clues - obvious, _obvious_ clues - that she’s surprised for not piecing it together sooner.

Alya notices the pigtails.  
Marinette is her best friend, and she’s had the same hairstyle for years.  
Ladybug’s hairstyle is not just similar - it’s exactly the same.  
Sometimes Ladybug’s bangs are windswept from the action; but it’s still the same.

Alya notices the way Marinette is never around when Ladybug is.  
Marinette always mysteriously disappears when an akuma attacks their school.  
Marinette scored her an interview with Ladybug, yet left Alya and the hero alone.  
Marinette, she notes, is the only one of her classmates who hasn’t been an akuma.  
Besides one Adrien Agreste.

Alya notices the eyes.  
They are so bright, so blue.  
They hold the same expression.  
Truly, she’ll recognize her best friend anywhere.

Alya notices the way Marinette’s been more secretive.  
She’s known her for years.  
She knows her _best friend_ cannot tell a lie for the life of her.  
Marinette may think she’s getting better at it, but Alya knows differently.

Alya notices the textbook, the damn history textbook.  
Marinette had lost hers.  
She only got it back after Alya’s had been missing.  
A coincidence? Perhaps on its own; but not with the other signs.

Alya notices the voice.  
She has so much footage of Ladybug talking.  
She hears Marinette’s voice almost every day.  
It’s the same.

Alya notices how one day, Marinette suddenly and mysteriously stops stammering around Adrien.  
How the two share knowing glances and smiles in class; trying yet failing in their subtlety.  
How it started only a week after Chat Noir and Ladybug had been spotted sharing one _very_ romantic kiss.

Alya notices.  
Alya notices, and she cannot stop once it starts.  
Alya notices, and she wishes she hadn’t.

Alya wants to confront, to confirm.  
She worries her suspicions may be right.  
But she has to know; as a journalist.  
(As a best friend.)

“Hey, Mari. Do you remember when we were kids and we used to watch superhero shows together?  
How we’d laugh about how nobody could ever figure out that Clark Kent is Superman,  
even though the only real difference was the glasses?”

‘Yeah! What about it?”

“Do you think I’m that stupid?”  
(She’s not angry. Just upset.)

“I-” Marinette replies. “What? No. Why do you ask?

(She knows, she knows _exactly_ why Alya is asking.  
Worry flashes across her face.  
Her heart beats fast.  
Alya is never going to forgive her.)

“I know, Marinette. I know you’re Ladybug.”

Marinette is silent.  
She knows Alya.  
She knows there’s no wiggling her way out of this situation.  
Instead, she looks down, down and gives her best friend a weary smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”  
Alya asks with a frown.

“I was scared that you’d tell everyone.  
That you’d put it on your blog.”  
Marinette bites her lip.

“Girl, I know I really wanted to know Ladybug’s identity -  
But do you really think I’d betray you like that? You’re my _best friend._ ”  
Despite her best efforts, Alya’s voice wavers.  
Marinette doesn’t trust her.  
After all these years, her best friend doesn’t trust her.

“I-” Marinette begins. “I don’t know. I just - ugh.  
Alya, I just needed to keep it a secret, ok?”

Alya smiles sadly - she gets it, she does.  
But it doesn’t make her hurt any less.  
It doesn’t stop her from wondering all that Marinette’s been through.  
What it might be like to bear that burden alone.  
She wraps an arm around her.

“You, my friend, better start telling me all sorts of cool stories to make up for this.  
And don’t you forget that I’m here for you!”

Marinette sighs heavily.  
Rests her head on Alya’s shoulder.  
Maybe Alya knowing isn’t such a bad thing.  
“Yes ma’am!” She laughs.

She knows Alya’s hurt.  
But they will get through this, together -  
because true friendship isn’t broken so easily.


End file.
